St. Mortiz Race #6

This was a great race, St. Mortiz is beautiful as I know I have said a million times already. But if you watched the race online you could agree.

I thought the race went well, I was really excited because training went so well. My first run was good but I made a few mistakes that I hadn't made in training. Which in my opinion really stunk but you have to expect it for the first race on any track. I didn't mind too much I just wanted to have a good second run. It was a good run in the parts that I wanted to fix. But I made other mistakes. Thats fine though, because I was so excited to be there! I think its good to make mistakes because you learn how to correct things when they matter.

This year I am working on my consitensy, and using this as a learning experience. Since I haven't been to three of the tracks this half I want to do the best I can and learn a lot while doing it.

We made it to Konigssee last night. Our hotel is a little weird. I know I am back in Germany though. It is set up odd so to get to our rooms we walk downstairs and through a tunnel then up the stairs again. Wonder what the tunnel was used for?? My room is so cold. The heater is hidden by a desk and doesn't heat the room too well, so it was a cold night of 59degrees. I'm hoping it warms up, I slept in socks, pants and a sweatshirt and I haven't done that in forever. Kind of funny! But it keeps it interesting!

I have to go explore the rest of this place and take lots of pictures for Kaitlin. We have the today and tomorrow off so hopefully we will do something cool!

Ready as I've ever been!!

The race is tomorrow afternoon at 1:00. I am really excited for it. We didn’t slide today but training yesterday went well. I think I have figured out the top of the track. It is the most important part here, it is so easy to skid and hit walls that you can lose so much time.

It takes a lot of focus to slide well here. The track is 1700meters long so there are a lot of mistakes you can make but also a lot of places to pick up speed. In training the fastest I went was 132km/hr. I’m not too sure how fast that is in mph but it felt fast so everyone check your speedometers! The start of the track begins in St. Moritz, but when we make it to the bottom over a mile later we finish in a town called Celerina. We end in a completely different town. I didn’t know until I was sewing my bib for the race (what we wear on top of our speed suit) and Courtney told me. I thought it was such a cool fact!

I spent my day off working on my sled, and just relaxing. I didn’t sleep very well for some reason so I watched one of the only English channels, BBC World it was either that or CNN and BBC was more interesting during the day. Caleb and I went and walked around the town for a little. I looked at all the very expensive stores and tried on sunglasses I can’t even imagine buying. But it was fun, I did find a book store with English books, so I bought 2. I figured I have a lot of time on my hands still so 2 was a better idea in case I finished the first one too fast! St. Moritz is so pretty, every time you turn you see a snow covered mountain. You really can’t ask for much more.

That’s all for tonight! Wish me luck, I’m really excited. My motto of course Relax and Have Fun! I have also added to my sled “Be not afraid of greatness…” Time to relax and go read one of my books! Good night everyone!

“I’m on the starting line for the rest of my life, Ready as I’ve ever been!”

Torino Races 4 and 5

Well Torino is a beautiful place, and I am so glad I finally got to go and slide the 2006 Olympic track! It was such a great experience. We had our new coach Martin with us this past week, and I learned so much I´m not sure I knew what to do with all the information! Torino is so far the most difficult track I have ever slide on, there are still new tracks I haven´t been to so we will see after I slide on a few more! You can never stop focusing on your run in Torino if you do, something will go wrong and you can get into trouble pretty quick. I mainly learned how to put my complete attention into any single run this week. I was pretty content with the race the first day. I finished in 17th and my runs were better than they were in training, and I finished ranked higher. I thought it was ok for my first ever time being there.I can´t say as much for the second day though. I had a great first push I was so excited and my run wasn´t great so I was hoping to fix it on the second run! I was excited to push fast again, well as soon as I took my first step that all came to an end. My sled came out of the groove, I don´t know if anyone has ever tried to stop a moving sled on ice but it is very difficult. I fell on my knees trying to stop, if anyone was watching it wasn´t a pretty sight. I got my sled back in the groove and as soon as I took the first step forward I realized the coaches had said come back. I could have restarted because I hadn´t made it to the timing eye. I crossed the finish line and knew how bad it was. Martin was there to meet me and carry my sled, with nothing but positive words. There will be millions of other races, but really who wants to come out of the groove. Orvie and Greg comforted me when I got back to the top so I started to smile and realize it wasn´t the end of the world just one race. Needless to say I learned new things on race day. You have to pay attention when things like this happen if I had looked at the clock I would have realized I could have restarted, but I didn´t and now I know for next time! You never stop learning no matter what you are doing in your life or however long you have been doing it. Nothing is ever perfect, you just have to realize how much you put into something and how much it means to you We are in St. Moritz this week and race again on Friday. I am very excited to slide here and I hope to do very well. I know I will be learning more this week since it is a totally different track than Torino. I am extremely tired so I am going to bed, and will write more tomorrow. Sorry if there are any spelling mistakes between my z´s and y´s they are in opposite spots on German keyboards and I am all confused with my typing. It has taken me forever to write this. But goodnight! "BE NOT AFRAID OF GREATNESS..."

Igls, Austria

Well we made it to Austria, after what felt like an incredibly long travel day. I couldn't sleep much on the place and was pretty exhausted the day we got here, good thing we weren't sliding right away.

We slid the past 2 days and its been going well. I'm glad we came here first because Igls is a simple track but hard to pick up speed on (its slow and short). I am competing in Junior World Championships here in about a month and any extra sliding time will be great. You can do very well on this track if you have a good push and find the little extra to give you more speed. We have a second coach to add to our team for second half, his name is Martin and his home track is Igls, I have a feeling I can learn a little something extra from here. I am excited hopefully I can win!

We leave for Italy on Sunday and start our first day of training Monday morning. I am excited but at the same time a little nervous, Torino is a very hard track and if you don't pay complete attention the whole time from what I've heard it could be bad. As long as I do my best that really is all that matters for the first time being there. 

It is so warm here right now, hopefully it gets a little cooler so sliding will be faster but who knows. I am ready to compete again it feels like we have had such a long break from competitions. After the race in Lake Placid I am ready for a real race. I really am loving being on world cup, everyone gets along well, and everyone seems to help with sliding and everything else. I realized today while walking the track that I have learned so much more this season then I would have thought. Its the little things, I have found its easier to talk with the coaches and my teammates about the tracks and lines without feeling like I am wrong. I know to ask more and analyze different aspects of the tracks. 

Well hope everyone is doing well back at home! Eat lots of chicken and drink some soda for me. I eat a lot of bread and butter, and a lot of odd meat. 

Trying to Get Ready Before Europe

I haven't decided to go to bed yet tonight, so I thought I would update everyone as much as I could before I leave on Tuesday. The Internet in Europe isn't always up to par like it is in the US or cheap so I might not be able to update my blog as often as I would like. I am still not sure if I plan on bringing my computer or if I might just borrow Caleb's and Courtney's when I need one. I just hate lugging the heavy thing and my other carry on.

We just had the Bobsled Bo-Dyn challenge this weekend. It was actually more fun than I thought it would be. Some of the great NASCAR and NHRA (drag racing; top fuel cars, and funny cars) drivers where up in Lake Placid, and they really have a great time with it. The Bobsled Bo-Dyn project is bobsled technology to make the sleds the best they can for the US team, its a great project and we just learned today that they are starting a Skeleton project soon! The NASCAR and NHRA guys use sleds that don't have to the same type of driving or body as the regular bobsleds, these are very hard to crash and don't go as fast but its still fun for them. The race each other during the day and get an overall winner. Today Boris Said won today he is a NASCAR driver. All of the drivers had the New York National Guard men and women as their brakes and they all seemed to be having a great time as well.

They are all really great people, and I love how much they love our sport, everyone is excited to try skeleton next year and I think that is so great. They all took the race so seriously today and it really made me love watching them. I am also excited now since NASCAR and NHRA races are always on the speed channel and ESPN, normally I flip right through the channels but now I will be interested if I know any of the drivers. They put so much into their sport, and I like what they do as well.

I am also working on re padding my sled with waterproof padding. So far its taken me 2 days, I keep walking away from it though and not coming back to it, because I want it perfect and its not turning out exactly as I want it. I have to go to the welder also and he hasn't been in his shop for the past two days, so I don't have everything that I wanted to be done finished yet. At least I have till Monday night. I suppose I could start my clothes packs but I haven't gotten to that either, so much to and so little time it seems like. I think I will get a lot done tomorrow so this will be good. But not if I don't go to bed anytime soon, so I am off to sleep. Night everyone!

Lake Placid National Championships

Well this was an interesting race overall. I was excited to come back to Lake Placid and slide but at the same time I wanted to stay home with my friends and family. My one goal for training and the race here was to come and have two consistent runs during training and the race. My training runs were within two hundredths of each other each time and that boosted my confidence for the rest of the season.

I was set for the race with 5 girls in it, except since it was so small I don't think I took it as seriously as normal. I normally weigh myself and my sled before every race, and I didn't this time. I always wear a thing pair of race socks but I forgot them in the drawer (pronounced draw so yes some people are laughing I am sure). I was a little off this race day and I'm pretty sure I ate a few too many Hershey kisses while at home.

I had a great first run and I was very excited I did what I wanted, the bottom of the track was almost flawless, the top could have been better but I was focusing on the lower part of the track more. I was in second though only nine hundredths behind Keslie. We weigh our sleds and ourselves after the first run of races. I got on the scale and I was .1 kilogram over the weight limit for the combined weight. I couldn't believe it, I have never been overweight before I was shocked. I tried getting the rest of the snow out of my shoes but I couldn't find the brush anywhere so it was all stuck. I was unofficially disqualified. Lets just say before the second run I wasn't happy, I was really mad especially because I had to use the bathroom before my first run but I decided to wait until I got back to the top, bad idea.

I have never been disqualified from anything in my life, not a track meet, or a tennis match or anything. I guess there really is a first time for everything, kinda crazy. I had a long talk with Orvie, my head coach, after the race he had a great point when he said this is a lesson I had to learn, its unfortunate but we are all glad it happened in a race that isn't a World Cup Race because that would have been the end of the world.

I am spending the rest of the week before we leave for Europe re padding my sled. I am now using waterproof padding because snow always finds its way inside the little cracks and I don't want anything affecting my weight anymore. It takes a long time for my old padding to dry out. We leave on Tuesday the 7th and head to Austria first. I'm very excited to start the second half of the season.